October Digest #1

World of Warships

After grinding my five missions for the GQ Johnny tokens today (1 October), I decided to treat myself and took out Lushun as it's returning to the game in the next dockyard event as Lushun B. Earned her in a 2023 dockyard event. Thirty-five phases in total. Once earned however she became a port princess given my focus was on other priorities at the time. But figured it was time to "take her out for a spin..." 

Recall watching a Trenlass video from around the time of her release where he played her. All I remember of that memory was a game filled with lots of Lushun firestarter moments where Trenlass played brilliantly from behind cover and he did well to hold a flank in her. Her deepwater torps are deterrents to heavier vessels although playing her as front-line might require caution given her combined strengths (hydro, 360 turrent rotation, good concealment) and weaknesses (no smoke, slow speed, slower torp reload) might find better utilisation on a flank, farming from cover, or dealing to capping enemy DDs. 

Ran her in a couple of game with Sa Zhenbing at the helm in Co-Op then restored her assigned captain for one final game. Performed to expectation. Took on a Marceau and before that a Kleber (admittedly it's Co-Op) and Lushun more than held her own despite having no smoke. Reminded me so much of Groningen with its MG-like rate of fire. 

And her deepwater torps in double quadruple tubes at 11km present a decent defensive wall against aggressive cruisers or battleships. But its her stealth and gunboat build that marks her for notice.

Keen to see what are the new coal ships. I heard Defence is returning - have it from last year. What are the others however does not interest me at the moment. 

Noticed the new devblog site upgrade. Same old same old content however. New ships released with Update 14.9. Yawn....!

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Was going to skip this Update's Dockyard event but remembered my ultimate goal so participated. Paid for five phases (bare minimum to finish this dockyard event: up three from previous dockyard events). Also forty five phases - much longer than the previous (Laffey) by far. 

Finished the first mission six tasks by playing Karl XIV Johan in Asymmetric. The last mission task (earn 900 ribbons) needed to be done using a destroyer. Thus I took out Groningen because it's good for earning loads of ribbons. Five quick games later and I was done.

This latest Event Pass (German Reunification themed) offers nothing of value as I already have the Prinz E. Friedrich, the halfway reward. No end of event reward ship which is disappointing. One of the 'new' releases would have made a fine reward incentive.

Liberty Harbour event starts 9 October (next Thursday local time). 

Despite the fun of Asymmetric, I have decided this will be my final year playing World of Warships in my current commitment (playing daily). Once I reached 700 ships, I'm done committing to playing every day for several hours. Not the sort of retirement I had envisaged. 

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Mixed day of wins and losses in Karl XIV Johan in Asymmetric. Not too bothered by the outcome however. Still stand by my faith in the Pan-European vessel although I am fully aware of her weaknesses. But maximising her strengths and playing smart even with her weaknesses (AP not that great) can extend ones survivability that little bit longer.

Making full use of island cover to screen yourself from being focus fired upon is essential and helps prolong your survivability. Too often when hammered to death, I was caught out in the open and often presented my broadside making it easy for the accurate enemy fire to score successes. And make no mistake, the bots aim is better in Asymmetric. Couple of times I was killed off by accurate enemy fire before I could sneeze Dixie.

Also remain aware to guard your base. Lost a couple of winning games because our team forgot the enemy were capping our base. 

Play the objectives whatever they be. If you're on a flank and a cap is there for the taking and you're the only one left, take it. Unless urgency requires you elsewhere, take the time to cap.  

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Perseverance pays off. Enjoyed a special moment today (Sat 6 Oct) - a 10-ship-kill game in Asymmetric. 

Had help from my teammates for the most part. And many kills were just me finishing off the severely wounded. But once I was all alone, I remembered to play the objectives and capped twice to help the cause. Ignored the remaining two enemy ships. The enemy managed to cap one back but by then the timer had run out with us as victors. Play the objective.

Not long after, I enjoyed a really good seven-ship-kill game. Again, co-operation is the name of the game. Had great help from a Moskva. Together we took care of our flank, capped it, then moved to the others. Three enemy battleships left - V. Veneto, Richelieu, North Carolina. While the Moskva provided fire support from cover, I raced out into the combat arena, sailing directly for our foe. Secondaries took care of one battleship which had beached itself and loosed off torps on other two to close out the game. 

As a result of this session, I was finally able to upskill the Pan-European Unique commander Swirski to 21-points. 

Perhaps buoyed by this good mood from this session, I've decided to switch Lisboa back to his assigned ship, Libertad, and have him grind from 20-point to 21-point in Asymmetric. 

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Stardew Valley

Currently seeking Perfection for my third character. Finished my second one a few days back. I have several active because I wanted to hook up with every available single female character. Of those, ditzy Hayley is my personal favourite. Yep, I have a thing for blondes. 

Just completing the tasks for the Walnut Room (Mr Qi) so I can earn the necessary Qi tokens to purchase several crafting recipes and finish off the crafting achievement. Just that and the good neighbour achievement are the main achievements left to complete. Everything else is done. As stated, catching the Legendary fish can be done in one day using magic bait with max fishing buff. Having mastered fishing helps too cos you earn the Advanced Iridium Rod as a bonus. 

Once I've completed the Perfection for this third character I will take a break before completing the remaining active characters at my leisure. 

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Other PC games

Steam's Autumn Sale is currently active.. Looking for a new game to take over once I'm done with WOWS. Seen a few YT recommendations. Am interested in a couple already but happy to cast my eye further afield. No firm decision yet made however. Maybe none will be acquired. No rush anyway.

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May 2025 - Part 3

World of Warships

Recently obtained two new ships - both superships - the US cruiser Jacksonville and UK battleship Devastator. Spent credits for them. Not likely I will play them anyway; just adding them to the port fleet. Slowly grinding towards 700 ships.

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Today a new event began - From Narvik to Dunkirk. In the Armoury are several historical ships involved during this period - Cossack, Scharnhorst '43, Montcalm, Warspite, Eskimo. And if you don't have them, 999 dubs is really cheap. But it's a lottery however: you have to spend more just for chance because there's 50 other bundles that have no ship in them and these are the one you'll likely end up getting unless you are very lucky. 

Of them, I do not have the Eskimo, a UK Tribal class destroyer. So I will be grinding for the necessary tokens to acquire it unless I get lucky and obtain it in a bundle. Each bundle costs 999 doubloons. I need over 800 Adventure tokens, currency to acquire the specific items in this event, if I was to straight up purchase the ship. 

Managed to upskill to 21-point my Yamamoto Isoroku legendary commander (finally). Currently grinding my Pan-Asian legendary commander Sa Zhenbing. Then it will be the turn of Mr. Lisboa, the Pan-American legendary commander. 

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I accept that the latest event is going to cost money but I don't necessarily mind too much. I still exercise my choice to gamble or not despite succumbing to temptation and splurge out most times. Yet I try to contain my gambling addiction to manageable limits. 

The overriding seduction however still remains playing naval battles in an arcade-style format. I do have milsim games such as Command Modern Operations and Scourge of War Remastered if seeking strictly historical entertainment. But I will continue to play the game (for now) while it still offers a level of positive and satisfying entertainment.

The Narvik to Dunkirk event involves several stages. Each stage has its own specific missions to complete. The rewards are Adventure tokens. The tokens can be used in the Armoury to purchase new ships, a new commander, and other titbits. These stages are unlocked gradually inasmuch as you have to wait until the release of the next stage. Stage 2 gets released 15th May. 

The next stage of the Experimental ships will also commence soon (next Update in a couple of days). Not looking forward to this release. Having completed the first part - Metz, Vyazma, Oregon - I know what to expect. And I won't be actively participating this time round. Why would I when there is no real reward. Again, the new set of ships will be loans like the first set. And again they will be Tier VIII, IX, and X respectively - Protector, Hotaka, Varese. And their emphasis will be their secondaries. 

But again, you can only unlock the first ship in this trio - the Protector - by spending Free XP (the devblog image showed 50,000 FXP needed to unlock the ship) or playing at least 10 games in Tier IX. Thereafter unlocking access is through a combination of accumulated Action Reports AND spending credits. 

Collecting Action Reports (three lots that total between 35-45) has accumulated to a fair amount - currently I have earned 1525. Can I spend them on these new ships?

Comments are generally unfavourable regarding previews of these ships with the most common complaint being that these are simply clones and/or amalgams of previous ship iterations. I wouldn't know the truth to that as I just like playing the ships.

A community favourite is making another temporary return - Asymmetic Battle mode. I will participate again because I enjoyed it last time, and because I get to run several port ships. Any ship from Tier VI to X is eligible with the ship range for players limited to a difference of 1 tier level. No restriction on players ships so you can run subs and carriers.

BOT ships will be two level lower and outnumber the players by a ratio over 2:1 - 5 players versus 12 BOT ships. BOTS will field no subs but carriers are fair go. Still fun. Played the Ohio heavily the first time Asymmetrics was introduced. 

A second USS Johnston is being added to the game. Why? Dunno. But along with this new ship you also get the commander, a flag, and an achievement specific to that ship. Some are wondering why the commander isn't afforded Legendary or Seasoned status in the skill level department. Interesting historical read too. 

Several new commanders are also making their debut. But they appear to have no special skills. Along with a new "fun" camo. And a couple of new detonation effects (silly really) will also be introduced. The effect is applies to any (only one) of your ships; whenever they score a detonation - boom - there goes your effect. Visual and identifies the ship killer on your team, but pointless really. 

Other changes affect the next Clan Battle season (#30) - experimenting with a new way to restrict or enhance modules on certain OP ships (really?) instead of limiting or banning them; yet they still ban three which are hybrids: Louisiana, Kommissar and Hildenbrand. 

As well there are changes (aka "improvements") to Operations with Flagship - which fiddles with ship performance modifiers. Both these battle modes I have no interest in or involvement with so don't care. 

As well, there are changes to the contents of certain containers which, again, holds no interest for me  whatsoever because they don't offer new ships.

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It never occured to me that I might be blacklisted but I found that out today while playing on the Two Brothers map in Co-Op mode. As the game began, someone in chat called out for assistance from two other players then casually remarked that the "others are blacklisted". My immediate response was one of surprise to find myself included in that blacklist. I did not know the player. Towards the end of the game, I repayed his compliment and blacklisted him in return. No time for trolls.

Today I continued to grind out my Pan-Asian legendary commander Sa Zhenbing on the Anshan at first but then switched to the Loyang towards the end of the grind. My economic bonus resource pool is fast dwindling but I will continue to use them to assist with the fast-tracking. Zhenbing is my last 20-point captain at the moment anyway. My next ones are Lisboa (Pan-America) and Swirski (Europe), but they still down the skill ladder so there's no real rush on them.

The Anshan was initially chosen because it's Tier V, has a speed boost, and saves on ship servicing cost. But the Tier VIII Loyang has a better torp spread. I also chose the hydro option instead of the speed boost this time for extra insurance. Both ships have smoke and their torps hit all ship classes unlike their deepwater cousins. Both are premiums. Both permit captain interchange without retraining. So I can rotate Zhenbing freely among all Pan-Asian premiums freely. 

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It seems the Eskimo is worth obtaining so goes the common consenus from YT streamers.

The bundles in this event are called Logistic Kits of which one bundle will contain one of the listed ships (Eskimo, Warspite, Cossack, Scharnhorst '43, Montcalm) while the rest are shipless and contain only resources and tokens. The thing is that there fifty such "shipless" bundles of this type. Each bundle, regardless of whether it has a ship or not, costs 999 doubloons or close to AUD6. 

Each shipless Logistic kit bundles gives you 35 Adventure tokens (currency), 5,500 Free XP, 16,225 Elite Commander XP, and 324,500 credits. To acquire the Eskimo outright, costing 800 Adventure tokens, I'd need at least 23 such bundles costing AUD 136.

These special missions offer at least 70 tokens and there are six such missions in the whole event lasting over a month. That's 420 tokens potentially available by projection.  

Update: Since the event unfolded, I was initially put off by the grind proposed for the Eskimo. But in the few days since, I am now assuaged reckoning the ship can be obtained for less that AUD136 by relying more on grinding the special missions for the tokens instead of buying the 23 bundles. Regarding the Logistic kit preview, I saw the Cossack come up as the next purchase available after purchasing a bundle today. As stated, only interested in the Eskimo because I have all the others.

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Bought the Logistic Kit bundle with the Cossack today. As I have it already received 2 bundles worth of dubs (1980) in return so spent them on two more Logistic Kit bundles. Slowly building up the requisite tokens for the Eskimo. 

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Today I managed to upskill Sa Zhenbing to 21-point thanks to playing Cossack's special mission (200% bonus on ship XP, commander XP, and free XP) as well as using economic bonuses. Tomorrow after the server has installed Update 14.4, I will play Cossack for the Dockyard steel bonuses - where possible). And grind the Pan-American legendary commander Lisboa. 

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Today I joined a game but disappeared to go to the toilet and check on the cats. Came back to find some arsehole had posted a passive aggressive comment in chat regarding my temporary absence. At first I apologised and explained why I had disappeared. Only later did I realise the tone of that comment was not complimentary. Coupled with the observation from a few days ago that I'm on someone's blacklist highlights a problem common to online gaming that it's easy to make enemies without even trying. 

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Other PC Games

Spilled

Found a delightfully fun but very short game on Steam last night. It's called Spilled. It cost around AUD8.

It's an ecological disaster clean up game. Only eight levels. Finished it on first go but missed out on a couple of achievements. Replayed it but still failed to earn the final achievement which is clean up Stage 8 completely. May be a glitch. Ran over the level carefully on second playthrough but could not find the missing pollution. Still fun though. Wish it were longer.

Each level, or stage, requires cleaning with your vessel that has a scoop and winch (appears later). Each level has two items that need rescuing (shown on right of image above). There are also side tasks that require retrieving a missing item and returned to its owner or original location (such as the task set by the yellow boat above). The more you clean up, the clearer the water below until it's crystal clear and the sea creatures are happy.

Each level has a recycling station that converts your trash into coins which can be spent on vessel upgrade (below) at the three upgrade stations. These upgrades are bigger scoop, large storage vat, and increased engine boost. 

The clean up will involve oil spills, floating junk containers, sunken toxic drums, coastal environmental pollution, reshaping terrain, and putting out land-based fires. 

Of course, the end game involves engaging, and defeating, an evil boss boat which you have to sink.  

Throughout, you are provided with in-game help whenever you encounter new situations (such as how to use the sprayer on your boat). Very fun and highly recommended therefore.

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Space Rescue - Code Pink (R-rated)

Adult early access game that's been on my wishlist radar for some time. So a couple of days ago I decided to purchase it. Titillating and R-rated animation but otherwise okay so far. The animation style is a real plus for me. 

You meet all kinds and types of characters as the only male repairman (Keen is his name) aboard the Rescue and Recreation ship. Periodically, other vessels will dock with you and new characters are introduced. Areas of the ship require access cards at varying levels of progress.  

Of course, the interaction between the repairman and the females provides the "entertainment" (aka titillation) value. The storylines for each female are short and sweet in terms of resolution. If stuck for clues, you can always use the run-through PDF manual to provide the solutions. 

I do think the design of vessel is fairly practical with the operational components around the sides of the main "knob end" of the ship with the relaxation component - the massage, sauna and pool areas as well as medbay - centrally located. The crew areas, entry and workshop areas are all in the rear and separated from the main ship by a corridor. 

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